Primary Sources: L. Ron Hubbard Leaves the Navy

In my Profile of Paul Haggis, I look into questions about the military record of L. Ron Hubbard, who served in the Navy during the Second World War. Hubbard wrote that he had been injured in battle and had healed himself, using techniques that became the foundation of Scientology. But Hubbard’s complete military record in the National Archives in St. Louis, a file that is more than nine hundred pages long, contains no mention of Hubbard’s being wounded in battle.

As I reported in the article, I discussed Hubbard’s war record with Tommy Davis, the spokesman for the Church of Scientology. He said that

if it was true that Hubbard had not been injured, then “the injuries that he handled by the use of Dianetics procedures were never handled, because they were injuries that never existed; therefore, Dianetics is based on a lie; therefore, Scientology is based on a lie.” He concluded, “The fact of the matter is that Mr. Hubbard was a war hero.”

Davis later sent me a copy of what he said was a document that confirmed Hubbard’s heroism: a “Notice of Separation from the U.S. Naval Service,” dated December 6, 1945. That document can be found below, followed by a copy of the Notice of Separation found in the National Archives. After consulting with Eric Voelz and William Seibert, two longtime archivists at the St. Louis repository, discrepancies have been flagged. (Click the arrows in the lower left corner to expand.)

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As I reported, the church, after being informed of these discrepancies, said, “Our expert on military records has advised us that, in his considered opinion, there is nothing” in the document it provided “that would lead him to question its validity.”

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